Rig blast survivor: 'We had like zero time'

Published 5:30 am, Thursday, April 22, 2010

In a photo the Chronicle obtained from an anonymous source, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sinks after the explosion Tuesday night.

In a photo the Chronicle obtained from an anonymous source, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sinks after the explosion Tuesday night.

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Micalet Kemp, right, throws her hands up in an act of emotion,Thursday April 22, 2010. At the Crowne Plaza hotel in Kenner La. knowing her loved one is still missing in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. less

Micalet Kemp, right, throws her hands up in an act of emotion,Thursday April 22, 2010. At the Crowne Plaza hotel in Kenner La. knowing her loved one is still missing in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon ... more

Photo: Billy Smith II, Chronicle

Rig blast survivor: 'We had like zero time'

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KENNER, La. -- For relatives of workers aboard the Transocean oil rig that burst into flames, the hours dragged by as they waited late into the night Wednesday and early Thursday for word from loved ones.

Several busloads of workers arrived at the Crowne Plaza hotel here at about 4:30 a.m. Thursday.

The buses drove to a side entrance. The workers disembarked and were escorted inside the hotel by security. Many of the men were wearing orange or blue jumpsuits and work boots. Two of the men found female relatives waiting on the curb and embraced for several long minutes. One tall man in a blue jumpsuit wiped away tears.

Members of the media were ordered off the hotel grounds. Most of the workers declined to comment as they began trickling out of the hotel later in the morning.

One man in an orange jumpsuit who gave his name only as Stenson said he’d been awake 48 hours. He was on his way home after emerging from the hotel surrounded by relieved relatives, including small children.

“It blew out and we had like zero time from the time the alarm went,” the man said. “It was all in flames.”

Stanley Murray was reunited at the hotel with his son, Chad Murray, 34, the rig’s chief electrician.

“The first thing he asked for was a tooth brush,” said family friend Jessica Sharp.

Stanley Murray said his son told him workers had less than five minutes to get off the rig.

“My son had just walked off the drill floor,” Murray said. “He said if he’d been there five minutes later he would’ve been dead.”

About a half hour before dawn, the Murray family tearfully embraced members of their neighbor’s family outside the hotel lobby. Murray said his neighbor’s son was still missing and hope had faded that he’d be found alive.

He said his son told him he didn’t think any of the missing could have survived.

Debi Nunley of Tyler said Wednesday she awoke to a ringing phone and a sinking feeling at 5:30 Wednesday morning. She answered the phone: “What is it?”

Her husband, who works offshore on a different rig, struggled to break the news that their 24-year-old son, Mark Nunley, was among those missing.

“From that point on it was prayers and waiting, prayers and waiting,” Debi Nunley said. “The thing that goes through your mind is ‘God please help these men, and my son especially.' ”

A long 71/2 hours later, her husband called with word that Mark had been found. He didn't have details, but it didn't matter. Mark was on his way back via boat, and she was grateful.

“I'm so thankful and blessed,” she said. “We won't get to hear or see him until 10:30 or midnight, because it's a long boat ride.”

When he landed, she said, her husband planned to be there to greet him.

Aware of the risks

In Denham Springs, La., Kristin Hall hadn't heard about the rig fire when her phone rang late Tuesday night.

It was her husband, who works on the rig for a Transocean contractor, calling on a satellite phone to say that he was OK.

His voice slightly breathless, he told her he had made it off the rig without injury, but that in the rush he had left his wallet, keys and cell phone behind.

Hall stayed awake the remainder of the night.

“Emotionally, it was a lot,” she said.

The mother of three is aware of the risks. Her husband, 36-year-old Robert Splawn, has held oil field positions for 10 years, the last three of them mostly offshore.

“It's definitely a risk that he takes when he goes out there,” Hall said Wednesday afternoon while she waited for word that she could reunite with her husband. “He's told me before that they could blow up. He really knows the dangers.”

Splawn was on his ninth day of a 14-day rotation as a clerk aboard the rig when the fire broke out.

Hall feels lucky that she got to hear her husband's voice — other families, she knows, did not. But she will be anxious until she sees him again, she said.

She doesn't think Splawn will make a career change.

“I'm not going to be able to talk him out of it,” she said. “The money is too good.”

She takes comfort in knowing that Splawn is well-trained and that rig fires are relatively rare.

“Basically, you could die driving an 18-wheeler down the road just as easily,” she said.

Jolted from sleep

In Kenner, families drove hours to the hotel to greet the survivors.

Kristy Murray said her mother called her at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday to tell her there had been an explosion on the rig.

Murray said she tried to reach her brother on Facebook, since he usually communicates by Internet when he's offshore, but he didn't respond.

In a panic, she and a friend drove 3½ hours to Kenner from central Louisiana.

Her brother's 5-year-old daughter, Maddy, was the last one to talk to him, about 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Chad Murray has been working for Transocean for five years, his sister said. The last time he was home, he joked that he might not go back out to sea, Sharp said.

The pay and benefits were good, but three-week-long gigs at sea didn't leave much time for his little girl, Kristy Murray said.

“And after this I doubt very seriously he'll set foot back on a rig,” she said. “His main concern is his 5-year-old daughter.” It was past noon on Wednesday before the Murray family got word that Chad Murray was safe on a boat.

Apparently he jumped from the platform to the boat, Kristy Murray said. “He was one of the last ones off the rig because he was helping everyone else.”

Carrol Moss hadn't slept a wink since a 4 a.m. phone call jolted her out of sleep to the news that the offshore rig where her husband worked had gone up in flames.

Eugene Moss, a 37-year-old crane operator and father of four, had been working on the rig for a year, his wife said. She turned on the TV news and couldn't peel her eyes away from the horrifying images on the screen. She wondered how anyone could have survived.

At about 1 p.m., the phone rang. A Transocean representative told her he was safe and on his way to shore in a boat with other survivors. Moss and relatives drove from Jayess, Miss., to the hotel.

‘In his blood'

Charity Wilson, 27, came from Waynesboro, Miss., after her brother's wife got a 4:30 a.m. phone call about the accident.

Micah Burgess, 29, had followed his father into the business, Wilson said.

“He loves it,” she said. “My daddy says it's just in his blood.”

Desperate for any shred of information, the family kept redialing the Transocean hot line until someone finally was able to tell them that Micah Burgess was one of the lucky ones. He was headed to Louisiana by boat with dozens of other survivors.

His wife, Beth Burgess, 28, and Wilson sat on a curb outside the hotel in Kenner on Wednesday afternoon. They stayed busy, answering cell phone calls from anxious relatives and friends, and trying to reassure themselves and others that the nightmare was almost over.

The bus carrying Micah Burgess and other survivors finally arrived in the early morning hours Thursday.